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tv   The Daily Rundown  MSNBC  October 11, 2012 6:00am-7:00am PDT

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back to work. >> brian sullivan has nerves of steel, but just like everyone that comes on this show, we will break them. >> got to break the biceps of steel first, mika. >> oh, god. i think i just threw up a little bit. >> i learned that sometimes you don't make initial assumptions about people. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." stick around right now for chuck todd in kwent. kentucky. thrill in the ville two? just a few hours left until the vice presidential candidates square off in kentucky. it's the young gun versus the washington veteran. pressure is on as our battle ground polls show the race is tightening. we'll break down the new flova numbers. confrontation on capitol hill. a hearing about the night the u.s. ambassador was killed in libya produces a lot more questions than answers. one thing is for sure. this is not the argument the white house wants to be having right now. plus under the archives.
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the last and most unforgettable zingers. the financial debates. good morning from center college here in danville, kentucky, left it behind me. it's october 11th, 2012. yes, that's 10-11-12, one of those cool numerology dates. tonight, if this were the playoffs, tonight would be game two. and after ace romney beat ace obama in game one, democrats are looking for their number two starter, joe biden, to try to even the score. republicans are hoping to go 2-0. team obama needs a strong performance from biden to make up for last week and change the subject, which the president is still being forced to explain. >> governor romney had a good night. i had a bad night. >> not bad. >> well, it's not the first time
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i've had a bad night, but i think what's important is that the fundamentals of what this race is about haven't changed. governor romney went to a lot of trouble to try to hide what his positions are because he knows that those ideas have been rejected. they won't work. and if he's making an honest presentation about what he's proposed, he will lose. >> of course, the president's poor performance means there may be more pressure on biden than ryan tonight. yet despite the pressure, anyone who watched biden during the 2008 democratic primary debates might consider him the favorite going into tonight. yes, he's prone to hyperbole, yes he hasn't had much practice with tv interviews in months, actually years for many of us, but biden is a strong debater. and he has the same thipg going for him that benefited dick cheney, gravitas. biden has promised to be aggressive, tweeting this yesterday. "paul ryan's last major speech was called stunning for its
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dishonesty. tune in to see if he'll be honest tomorrow." and he promised a relentless prosecution of the ryan budget. >> governor romney has embraced the ryan budget. well, he has. he's gone back and said, no, he agrees with it. i just want to make sure that, when i say these things, that i don't have the congressman saying, no, no, no, i don't have that position, or that's not the governor's position. >> expect biden to be more pointed and tough than the president was. the question, how aggressive will he be? he doesn't want to come off as unlikable or condescending. one thing biden has going for him, his, quote, unquote, gaffes. in a new pew poll, voters narrowly say they expect ryan to win tonight's debate in a 40-34 margin. although ryan is trying to down play expectations. >> joe biden has been on this stage many times before, and this is my first time. sure, it's a nervous situation because joe biden is one of the most experienced debaters we have in modern politics. but the achilles heel he has is president obama's record. >> and ryan is dealing with
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unrealistic pressure. the base of his party thinks of biden the same way democrats thought about dan quayle. they consider him a joke. and republican expectations for ryan to clobber biden are through the roof. in that pew poll, 78% of republicans believe ryan will do better in the debate, compared to 62% of democrats who say the same about joe biden. ryan has to defend both his record and mitt romney's, and in some cases, those two tasks midi verge. the bottom line for ryan, he has to prove he's ready to be president. that is tonight's most important test, and one that i think a lot of people miss when it comes to what a vp debate means. ryan's readiness, of course, on foreign policy, that's going to come up as well. tonight's 90-minute debate is divided between domestic and foreign policy, and moderator martha raddatz says she will alternate between the two in nine ten-minute segments. each segment will have a response followed by untimed discussion. libya will indeed come up
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tonight. speaking of libya, that was the subject of a heated congressional hearing yesterday that was one part spectacle and one part substance. the bottom line, no part of the hearing was good for the white house. two former security officers from the libyan mission testified that their requests for help were either turned down or ignored. >> i asked for 12 agents. his response to that was you're asking for the sun, moon, and the stars. you know what makes most frustrating about this assignment? it's not the hardships, it's not the gunfire, it's not the threats, it's dealing and fighting against the people, programs, and personnel who are supposed to be supporting me. for me, the taliban is on the inside of the building. >> republicans repeatedly accused the state department of lying by initially blaming the attack on protests over an anti-muslim video. >> ambassador, i don't like doing this. >> i will tell you, though, that when i was in libya, a good part of the day, never once did a person ever mention a video.
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>> this was never about a video. it was never spontaneous. this is terror. and i want to know why we were lied to. >> and republicans challenged ambassador patrick kennedy on whether politics played a role in early descriptions of the attack from u.n. ambassador susan rice, the state department, and the white house. >> when you put jay carney out there and ambassador rice to say that this is a result of an inflammatory reaction to a controversial film, sir, it begs the question, what happened was it a result of political pressure? >> i have been a career foreign service officer for 39 years. i have served every president since richard nixon. i have directly served six secretaries of state. >> but the white house still faces questions about that evolving explanation for the benghazi attack. at wednesday's press briefing, press secretary jay carney was hammered with questions.
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>> why were you at this podium for several days after that saying we don't know if it's terrorism? >> i never said that. i never said we don't know if it's terrorism. there's a definition of terrorism. it's an act of terrorism, the president made clear. >> so september 12th, the president believed it was terrorism? >> he was it was an act of terror. >> the president gave his own defense of that shifting explanation in an abc interview. >> as information came in, information was put out. the information may not have always been right the first time. these are people i know, and if there's something to be fixed, it will get fixed. >> questions remain, taking the administration at its word that it didn't intentionally mislead on the story, the only other explanation seems to be a massive intelligence failure. by the way, in ohio wednesday, romney once again told the story of meeting one of the victims of the benghazi attack. >> i met some wonderful people. one was a former navy s.e.a.l.,
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and glen doherty, and he -- we chatted for a while. >> that's the last time we're going to hear that story. the campaign says it is respecting the wishes of doherty's family. doherty's mother said this to our nbc affiliate whch, "i don't trust romney. he shouldn't make my son's death part of his political agenda. it's wrong to use these brave young men who wanted freedom for all to degrade obama." finally, we've got a new round of battleground state numbers from flova, florida, ohio, virginia. here's what we know. we're back to where we were before the conventions, before 47%, before the first presidential debate. it's a very close race. some structural battleground state advantages for the president. romney did gain the most ground in virginia. he's turned a 2% deficit to an edge. florida, a one-point race before is still a one-point race.
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president up 48-47. before the debate, the president led 47-46. in ohio, the president maintains a shrinking but substantial lead. he has a six-point advantage, leading romney 51-45. the big difference, early voting. there in ohio, nearly one in five respondents tell us they've already voted. and if those who have voted, almost two-thirds have voted for president obama. and did the first debate sway any voters? the vast majority tell us they made up their minds before the debate. joining me now, lee, director of the marist poll. that's what i want to start off with. i thought it was remarkable that we're talking single digits here, 7% in florida, 7%, 6%, in these three states that said the debates mattered. among that small sliver of people, they all favored romney for those that say debates mattered. >> this is what we've been saying throughout the campaign. this electorate who picked sides early, the undecided has been
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low, those firmly committed to a candidate has been very high. and then you come to the debates, as lob sidpsided as it 97% tell us they already made up their minds. you're talking about single digits having picked sides as a result of the debate, and romney got the advantage there. we see a slight closing of the numbers in these three critical states, but nothing to change -- to alter the fundamental chemistry of this race. you still have a close race. it looks a little bit like it did, as you say, before the conventions, slight edge to obama, particularly in ohio. but very close. >> i want to look at his job approval rating, if you will. among likely voters and among registered voters. among likely voters, we have a screen up here. post-debate, it's approval ratings. florida at 48, virginia at 48, ohio 49. in ohio, the numbers was 47.
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it does seem as if the likely voter sample was more favorable to the democrats than the registered voter sample. the likely voter sample more favorable to the president than voters. what did you learn from that going through the probability scale. >> just two points to be said. the president isn't over 50, and that's an important political process. trying to kick this up just a few more points. generally well received and the enthusiasm numbers slightly favoring romney than obama. but not in the kind of numbers that it's altering that chemistry. latinos and african-american voters are staying in more than we've seen, and i think that's sort of counterbalancing the others. we're not seeing a big difference in all these states between registered and likely, especially not in ohio. that's a special case with 18%
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having already voted. as you said, 63% for obama. huge difference in the campaign affecting the chemistry of ohio. >> and very quickly, i want to do one other number that i want to bring up. who's better able to handle the economy post-debate? we saw some shifting -- not a lot, but some shifting in mitt romney's favor. he's ahead on the economy in florida, ahead on the economy in virginia, but behind in ohio. it sort of tells me, that sort of explains the leads. maybe it's better, as good as any number that you have out there. >> sure. this is such an important question in terms of not only the right direction, which has gotten a little tighter in terms of people thinking things are heading a little better than they were, but in terms of the economy, romney in the driver's seat in those two states but not necessarily in ohio. and the favorable or unfavorable, very important here. romney lifted his favorabilities in all three states as a result of the debate. but in ohio, he's still upside down. obama still over 50 in all three states.
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so he didn't get hurt. romney got helped. the race got closer. >> we also had a conservative ideological advantage of conservative in the exit polls. what do you tell folks that look at those numbers? >> this tells you you can't weight your data by party idea. we've said it a million times during the campaign. there's national polls. they had a 15-point swing in party i.d. in two weeks. you get into a problem when they start doing that. what we're seeing is in ohio the effects of the early voting. those people are democratic, and they aren't likely voters, they're definite voters, and that's what's pulling these numbers. >> lee miringhoff, director of the marist poll. always good to see you. we'll see you in a few weeks. vice president biden says he's anticipating a chance to draw a clear contract with the republican proposals at tonight's debate. joining me now, kentucky's democratic governor steve
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beshear. thanks for being here. >> thanks for coming to the commonwealth of kentucky. >> we love kentucky. as a democrat, you favor the democratic ticket, i assume. what do you want to hear from joe biden tonight that you didn't hear from president obama? >> i think joe will continue to draw the clear contrast between the visions of the two camps. you know, chuck, when it all comes down to it, and i heard some of the poll numbers that you all have been talking about, i think this election is going to be decided on the issue of trust. you know, the american people don't have time to look at all of these complex issues like you and i do and others do, and they vote with a gut feeling in the end. they trust the president. they don't agree with him on everything. but they think he's honest, and they think he wants to help him, and they don't trust romney. >> so you think that's how he can overcome this sour feeling about the economy, that, well, i'm not crazy about his policies, but i like him or i trust him? that's what you think? >> i trust him that he cares about me. you know, people understand that
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the way you can really probably find out who a person really is is when he gets behind closed doors and talks to his buddies when he doesn't think anybody else is listening. of course, they had that 47% video that i think is mitt romney. i think that's the way he really thinks, and i think americans see that. they just want somebody that thinks that all of america and everybody in america needs to go along and enjoy the improvement in the quality of life and not just a select few. >> when i look at the state of kentucky and you look at it about socioeconomic status, and you sit there and say there's a lot of working class people here. you would assume they should be with the democratic party. you've had success here. democrats on the state level, very competitive. democrats on the national level, not at all. what's your explanation? >> well, we are competitive at times and not competitive at other times. on the national level, kentucky's kind of schizophrenic. we voted for carter. we voted for clinton. we voted for reagan. we voted for bush. it goes back and forth.
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one of the issues we have here as democrats in kentucky is it's not here. >> do you think they'd do better? >> i don't think we could carry it, but they would do better. we'd see them in person. >> who's better for the coal industry? president obama or mitt romney? >> in the short term, i think we're too heavily regulated and we need to have a little more time for developing clean coal technology. in the long term, i think the president wants to do that. and will work to make that happen. >> i think obama in the long run would be better. >> democratic governor, steve bee shear. a litt little chilly. >> but the day's warming up. >> senior adviser dan seymour after the break. no, no, no, stop!
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i played a lot of sports when i was a kid and still do. if you have a bad game, you just move on. you look forward to the next one, and it makes you that much more determined, i think, that he will once again be very well-prepared. he makes a good power point presentation. i look forward to seeing him. >> that was president obama needling romney ahead of next tuesday's second presidential debate. but before obama and romney meet for that high stakes town hall, the number two men get to be the number one guys tonight here in danville, kentucky. dan senor is the senior adviser to congressman paul ryan and a foreign policy adviser to the romney campaign.
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mr. senor, great to see you. you've done a lot of mock debates. you know the vice president is going to talk a lot about the ryan budget, but we know the ryan budget is not all the romney budget. how much does he defend his own budget versus the romney ticket? >> first of all, he has to make the case about the choice in this election. things have been rough over the last four years, and it's incumbent on president obama and vice president biden to explain what exactly has happened over the last four years. 23 million americans out of work. 47 million americans on food stamps. 1 in 6 americans in poverty. and have them explain the rationratio rationale for why they deserve a second term. there's a choice in this election. they are running on the romney-ryan agenda. governor romney has laid out a plan, laid out the five-point plan for the middle class. >> when there are differences, what does congressman ryan say? this is my budget. this is what governor romney is going to do. >> governor romney has laid out
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an agenda for four more years. president obama doesn't have another agenda, except four more years of the same. >> does it make it difficult that he has his own budget. >> some of the principles of the budget are the same. the difference between governor romney and congressman ryan pale in comparison between the differences of romney-ryan and obama-biden. that's what we're debating tonight. >> why do people watch a vice presidential debate? do they watch it for a policy debate, or do they watch it to see can these guys become president of the united states? >> this stuff is always anecdotal. it's like sports. people have an opinion out of these debates. i think about it more as this month. these few weeks, the debate phase of the campaign. up until now, the entire campaign is about tv ads, surrogates arguing on televis n television, media pundits providing the analysis. and what was striking about last week's debate between governor
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romney and president obama, first time 90 minutes unfiltered, these two men going face to face, challenging one another. that's what this is about. it's just about suddenly we get to see the two leaders, in this case, the two vps. >> sort of philosophical. just part two of this philosophical debate. >> correct. it's the only moment in the campaign. last week 70 million viewers. this week, who knows how many we'll have. it's the first time in the debate we have tens of millions of people sending out their agendas and holding one another to account. >> martha raddatz has already promised it, says it's going to alternate back and forth. this is the most inexperienced ticket on foreign policy in america. >> i disagree with that. >> on paper, is it not? >> governor romney has had tremendous experience as a chief executive. there have been many successful presidents who were governors who have been chief executives that were successful to foreign policy. whether it was governor clinton or president bill clinton. governor ronald reagan who became a two-term president, won the cold war, successful
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president. and congressman ryan, he has been the chairman of the budget committee. he's had to deal with a number of national security issues. when you are head of the budget committee, you're crafting a budget every year. those numbers are actually connected to real programs, real priorities in the realm of foreign policy, and i think -- look, he's not joe biden. he hasn't had decades in serving on the senate foreign relations committee and having participated in many debates over the years on a range of these issues, but he knows where he stands. he knows where he's anchored on these issues, and i think he'll be comfortable talking about that. >> the abortion issue has popped up. it may pop up tonight. i don't know. governor romney saying one thing to the des moines register editorial board. i know what the romney/ryan position is on abortion and about life. is there going to be an active attempt to pass more pro life legislation. >> no. i think that governor romney -- >> what message are you trying
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to send? >> governor romney, i think this issue the last 24 hours was a lot of hype. governor romney and congressman ryan have always said they're proud of pro life records, and theirs will be a pro life administration? >> will it be legislatively active? >> they're not advocating this specific measure or that specific measure in terms of the five-point plan. he said there will be a pro life administration. >> what does that mean, though? >> it means, when they have to weigh in on issues and address issues, it will be from a pro life perspective. they're focused on governor romney's five-point plan for turning around the economy and rescuing the middle class. >> unfair expectations with regards to your party. >> david plouffe -- >> your base is all fired up about your guy. >> we spend a lot of time traveling around the country. david plouffe in his book, after the 2008 election, said that one of the reasons they chose joe biden is because he won every one of the 14 debates in 2008 in the primary. he's a very experienced debater. he did very well in his debate,
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vice presidential debate. he's been doing this for a long time. david axelrod, as you all know, parachuted in to commandeer the debate. >> did paul ryan speak to sarah palin for any advice? >> he did not. the truth is over the last few days he's been focused on his preparations. as you may know from your experience in washington, he often puts on head phones, does a lot of reading. he hasn't been doing a lot of phone calls. >> and a lot of p90x. dan senor, thanks for getting up early. see you tonight. wall street appears to be rebounding as weekly jobless claims come out. market rundown is next. plus paul ryan's other opponent. the guy who's trying to take ryan's house seat in wisconsin. he came here to danville, kentucky, because he's looking for a debate of his own. first today's trivia question. which former vice presidents ran against one another for president in a general election? give me both answers. tweet me @chucktodd and daily rundown. first correct answer gets a
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welcome back. beautiful campus here at center college in danville, kentucky. paul ryan has a lot on his plate, in addition to preparing for the vice presidential debate, he has a whole other campaign to deal with. ryan is simultaneously doing what a lot of other vice presidential candidates have had to do, run for re-election as well as be the number two on the ticket. in this case, it's representative of the first congressional district of wisconsin. his opponent is democratic candidate rob zerbahn, and you
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came here to follow paul ryan why? >> i'm here because paul ryan has refused to engage the voters of the first congressional candidate since he was tapped by mitt romney. he's authored the most destructive budget the united states has ever seen. >> if by running on the national ticket, is he not answering these same questions that voters in a swing district like the first congressional district of wisconsin? isn't he answering these questions? >> they're seeing a side of paul ryan they've never seen before. the national spotlight has not been very kind in his positions. he co-sponsored hr-3 with todd akin, redefining rape, and he wrote a budget that calls for killing medicare. >> everybody thinks it kills medicare. it is the premium support. and he redid it. he reconfigured his plan because it was getting so much criticism. >> it's no longer the guaranteed benefit medicare is. it turns it into a voucher program. if you're using that program to opt into medicare or going out
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and buying private insurance. nobody feels it's going to meet the need of an aging population. >> you have had a surge in fu fund-raisi fund-raising. you outraised paul ryan's congressional committee in the last period. are you running tv ads? are you getting a debate? are you getting any air time where a local network might have a debate? >> we've accepted invitations from the local news stations. and i did go out on tv. we're getting a message out about the alternative the voters want. we sent unemployment sky rocketing in our district since wees been our congressman. in jansville, our hometown, it's more than tripled. and on the eastern side of the district, it's more than doubled. he needs to answer these questions. >> and the unemployment, why is that congressman's fault and not president obama's? >> we've seen paul ryan point out in his convention speech he tried to lay the blame of opposing the gm plan at the feet
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of president obama. there's a disturbing pattern of dishonesty coming from the vice presidential nominee that people haven't seen in the past. he's certainly supported policies in washington, d.c., to allow companies to export these jobs overseas. we need to make sure that he comes back and answers the question why does he support these policies? why do you support free trade deals and not fair trade deals? >> do you believe you're getting enough support from the democratic party? >> the democratic party has been with me from the beginning. they asked me to start this race, and they allowed me to build the organization i have today which helped me outraise paul ryan. >> you came here to follow -- i guess you're delivering petition signatures, looking for a debate? >> i already delivered 53,000 signatures. >> i think it would be hard to imagine he's going to pull off the ticket and debate in your district. >> i don't want him to pull off the ticket. i want him to come back to the district and engage the voters. >> jobless claims plunge to 339,000. it's the lowest level in 3 1/2
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years. it comes after the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8%. let's get to the market rundown. cnbc's becky quick is here. becky, i know there are some questions about this drop. and i understand you have some answers. >> you can't come up with a big drop like this without immediately having conspiracy theorists jump in and say exactly what happened. >> really? a conspiracy theory? >> let me tell you what kicked it off. there was a dow jones news wire story that reported that a labor economist said one large state didn't report additional quarterly figures as expected, and that accounted for a substantial part of the decrease. that somehow got translated into one large state didn't report any figures at all, and that's why you should throw out this entire set of numbers. in fact, the rumor, at least on twitter and other places, was that maybe it was illinois. back up. hold on a second. these numbers are legitimate. what happened was a labor department economist told a roomful of journalists -- or at least this is my best guess based on some reporting kelly evans, a colleague of mine, has
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done. they told a roomful of journalists that one large state didn't report the expected increase, the big increase that had been expected. instead, they reported a drop. and that's what accounted for that big 30,000 drop. but, chuck, you're going to hear things all over the map. this is not that a large state did not report. this is that they did not report the big surge that economisted had been predicting and expecting. we'll get more details on this a week from now, but this is a weekly number. we'll get another number a week from now. the market, though, is looking at this as good news. right now it looks like the dow is opening up by about 75 points. >> gotcha. all right, conspiracy theorists. that's why apparently god invented twitter. thank you, becky. next the slam dunks and the slip-ups. we're taking a deep dive into some of the most iconic vice presidential debate moments.
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beautiful danville, kentucky, here. welcome back to "the daily rundown." a little testing of music in the background. tonight's biden-ryan face-off comes at a pivotal time in the race. vice presidential debates typically don't have much, if any, impact on an election's outcome, but they produce the most memorable moments in televised history. today we're taking a deep dive into some of our favorites. four years ago, nearly 70 million viewers watched joe biden go toe to toe with former governor sarah palin. ready for this? it wasn't just the most viewed
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vice presidential debate in history. it was the most viewed presidential debate in history. coming off an unforgettable interview with katie couric, viewers were eager to see how the alaska governor would fare against the senior senator from delaware. before the debate even got under way, palin delivered one of the most memorable lines of the night. >> hey, can i call you joe? >> you can call me joe. >> thanks. >> campaign manager steve schmidt later revealed it was a conscious effort to avoid this slip-up. >> barack obama and senator o'biden, you've said no to everything -- >> of course, the palin-biden matchup was not the first time a relative rookie faced off against a more seasoned opponent. in 2004, it was vice president dick cheney up against senator john edwards. with one rehearsed line highlighted edwards' inexperienced and his poor senate attendance record. >> i'm up in the senate most tuesdays when they're in session.
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the first time i ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight. >> but the prize for the best zinger aimed at a whipper snapper undoubtedly goes to the late senator lloyd benson. in his 1988 debate against a youthful dan quayle, benson delivered one of the most famous lines in any debate history. >> senator, i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> it can be a tough line for a washington veteran to walk, touting experience without talking down to an opponent. something that george h.w. bush failed at during his 1984 debate with geraldine ferraro. >> let me help you with the difference, miss ferraro, between iran and the embassy in lebanon. >> geraldine ferraro, the first ever female vp candidate, shot back with this.
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>> let me just say, first of all, that i almost resent, vice president bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy. >> sometime just one line can cement the public's view of a candidate. ross perot's running mate, admiral james stockdale, initially got laughs for this opening line. >> who am i? why am i here? >> he ended up the butt of jokes for years to come. then there was bob dole's nasty tone during the '76 debate that helped shape a long-lasting negative image for the future nominee for president. >> i figured out the other day, if we added up the killed and under wooed in democrat wars in this century, it would be 1.6 million americans, enough to fill the city of detroit. >> mondale fired back, calling
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dole a hatchet man. but it's not all one-lipers and zingers. sometimes the vp debates are more friendly than fierce. in 1996, al gore used a bit of self-depositi self depositirecating humor to jam kemp off his game. >> i'll start by offering you a deal, jack. if you won't use any football stories, i won't tell any of my warm and humorous stories about fluorocarbon abatement. >> and they were down right chummy on stage back in 2000 here in danville. >> i too want to avoid any personal attacks. i promise not to bring up your singing. >> i promise not to sing. >> stakes are a lot higher tonight than in any past vp depates. we'll have to wait and see why it will be remembered for last
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gaffes, a game changer, or like the first ever televised vp debate, a nasty one. we'll get our political panel's take on what to expect tonight. they'll join me next from right here at center college. first, i could use some soup today. it is chilly up here. speaking of chili, that's the soup of the day. white chicken chili. don't forget to check out our facebook page for an exclusive behind the scenes look at the show right here from center college. i got abraham lincoln behind me. right here at the debate site. new prilosec otc wildberry is the same frequent heartburn treatment as prilosec otc. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted. like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning.
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and help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that's right for you. o clusters of pustules, pimples. i had this shingle rash right next to my spine. the soreness was excruciating. it was impossible to even think about dancing. when you're dancing, your partner is holding you. so, his hand would have been right in the spot that i had the shingles. no tango. no rhumba. you can't be touched. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com there it is, abraham lincoln, the statue here at center college. he's got a debate credential. we want to know what fraternity
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or sorority is going to plot to steal that credential later tonight. we're here in the thrill in the ville part two. here's what ryan had to say about his opponent. >> joe biden's been on this stage before. he's been on these big stages. this is my first time. what he can't run from is president obama's indefensible record. >> let me bring in my kentucky debate panel. sans burr bohn. and from the washington examiner susan. welcome all. it's a little chilly. we could use a little nip. >> just a little. what's in your cup? >> i'm kidding. just coffee, and it's now cold. congressman, let me start with you. you know paul ryan a lit bit. you served with him. you know joe biden well. how much pressure do you think joe biden is feeling that, if anything, he needs to make the base of the democratic party feel good about again. >> the base has been
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demoralized. there's no question about that. he will do that without question. that's really not a big burden on him. i think the real burden is on congressman ryan. because he's taken positions that he now either has to repudiate, walk away from, or explain. kwun of the things that i think is a great opportunity for the vice president tonight is the more he highlights the ryan budget and the devastating cuts he makes to programs that benefit hard working, middle class americans, that's going to help democratic candidates across the country because every republican incumbent voted for that budget. >> susan, it's interesting. i was asking dan senor about it. you know the ryan budget is going to come up and there are differences between the romney budget and the ryan budget. not major ones, but enough that there are some distinctions, and ryan has to walk that line. hey, wait a minute. i'm defending the romney ticket here, not my own, but he's going to be tempted to defend his own budget, has he not? >> i've listened to him talk about this now since he became
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the vice presidential pick, and he does a really good job making it not about his budget but about romney's budget and showing there's not a lot of daylight between the two of them. he manages to pull that off pretty well without stumbling. i'm confident he'll be able to do that tonight, and what differences there are have been lost on the public. this is really getting into the weeds once you get into that budget stuff. i'm not worried about that part of the debate. >> speaking of wooeeeds, do you think it's going to be as weedsy as it was last time. they know this stuff three, four inches deep. >> the medicinal kind or some other? >> i think you make a very good point. this is the danger for both of them. >> they can't speak washington. >> can't speak washington. this is the challenge, i think, for ryan, and i think he can hit it. is to, yeah, put the facts and figures out there but relate it to somebody. make it relevant to real people. that's something that the romney/ryan ticket has not been
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effective at doing up until this last debate. >> romney was pretty good at it. he pulled a clinton. clinton was always so good -- >> came out of the box right at the top. >> and romney did that. i want to ask you two guys very quickly. this expectation game that ryan has to deal with. the base of the democratic party has no respect for joe biden the same way they had no respect for dan quayle. you have that same feeling. how does ryan handle losing to joe biden, would hurt his personal politics a little bit? >> i don't think so. paul ryan, everybody gets what he represents both now and in the future for the party. i think they expect him to come out and do well. as long as he stands toe to toe and demonstrates that he's got the gravitas to be on that stage. >> that is a little -- that is going to be -- we have seen the senior looks on a vp stage. because a lot of people simply watch the debate. they want to know, what does he look like? could he be president? >> that's right. biden's got the foreign policy creds. what really does paul ryan have?
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there's a 27-year age gap. he's going to show that he's up for the task, and even though biden's got more experience than him, he could be equally capable of handling foreign policy. >> we've got a slough of polls that have come out that show, i think, big picture this race is back to where it was maybe pre-convention. very close race. now it's hand to hand combat. is that fair? >> i think that's pretty fair. i looked at real clear politics this morning, and it looked like there was a lot more blue on it than there was yesterday. important senate races where it looks like it's returned to the margins. before last week, tim kaine up seven in one poll in west virginia. i think things are settling a little bit from the furor of last week and the jobs numbers that came out last friday. it will be a dogfight. there's no question about it. i wish we had a campaign in kentucky. >> are all the bumps gone? it feels like everything is gone now. or do you think the bump is still there for romney? >> we've got two more debate ds.
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anything can happen. in two debates, he's got momentum. i think, to discount that. >> we'll keep talking about this on the other side. trivia, we asked which former vice presidents ran against one another for president in the general election? and nobody got this. you all got all got nixon/hump jefferson. we'll be right back with who are.
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this is another example of governor romney hiding positions he's been campaigning on for a year and a half. governor romney has made it very clear that if a bill comes to
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his desk that overturns roe vs. wade, that he will be fully supportive of that. >> let's bring back our panel. there were a lot of, among the issues that democrats were upset the president didn't bring up in the first debate, was this issue, abortion, contraception. mitt romney's comments the other day seem to have given the campaign an excuse to bring it up. >> it's sure an opening. and the ryan budget does that, too, and the plan to repeal the affordable care act. because all those things have protections in it for women's health, have things that will benefit women immensely. so when you package all of those issues, his flip-flopping on abortion rights, governor romney's and these other policy questions, it really is an opening again to restore that gender gap that we have. >> what i found interesting about what romney said to the editorial board, a little bit of
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a walk back, they're tentative on how they handle abortion. >> they have to get hair story straight, both he and ryan. this is really the big opening for the obama campaign. don't forget they have successfully taken away support from romney and ryan with their war on women. and that's been helpful for the democrats. this fits right into that. and they can clearly very easily trap the republicans if they don't come up with a good game plan. >> it was interesting to watch. and the other thing, it seems democrats are not sure, the president says, no, he's not a flip-flopper, he's really conservative on the abortion issue. others say, no, hit him for being a flop flopper. >> this is the concern that a lot of folks have, that if you look back at the summer and spring when they've stumbled and fallen, it's because of what romney said in those moments -- >> in an open moment. >> and so stay on the point. >> it was an addition of extra
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detail about legislation. >> draining your own momentum is not good politics. >> all right. shameless plug time. >> as the founder of the congressional bourbon caucus, come to kentucky. the bourbon trail is a great tourist attraction. >> it is unbelievable. >> the retired sisters of the immaculate heart of mary are having a none fun run this weekend. 8:00 a.m. in falls church at st. james school. >> we have interesting opinions about the debate up at our site. >> i love debating. my shameless plug is for the newest member of our family. our executive producer and his wife welcomed graham anderson into the world just after midnight this morning. 7 pounds 2 ounces. very excited to watch his first debate tonight. trust me, they'll be up all
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night long. that's it for this edition of the daily rundown. tomorrow all the post-debate analys analysis.
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